Non-ethanol vs 93

Two problems with separate but related causes.

The ethanol issue goes like this: ethanol attracts and binds with water (hydrophyllic). The gas left in your fuel bowls (which in my case can sit for a month or two at a time) evaporates because the fuel bowl is vented. The Gasoline evaporates first because it is more volatile than ethanol, and when the factories all went to EFI and a sealed fuel system, the oil companies took the anti- evaporation fuel stabilizers out of the mix. This leaves ethanol in there last with the water that is attached to it. The result is corrosion and deposits in the bowl and when the car starts up it is in every orifice that the fuel bowl feeds (jets, metering rods, etc). What the Carb Defender does is chemically fills the receptors in the ethanol to keep it from holding the water. I'm not a chemist. This is the way Herb McCandless explained it at the seminar (he's not a chemist either). What I know is that my carbs cleaned out and ran smoother over a couple months, after a few years of getting worse and worse.

The ping came from insufficient octane rating in the non-ethanol 87 octane gas I tried to avoid the ethanol.

So now my gas (premium with ethanol) is up to snuff from any good gas station as far as octane goes, and the Carb Defender deals with the potential bad consequences in a carbed motor on ethanol.